Chapter 1 - Scientific Understanding of Behaviour Flashcards
How do we acquire knowledge?
Authority, intuition, experience, common sense, logic, and empiricism
Authority
- The capacity to influence others
- Any source of power or control
- We often defer to authorities and accept their ideas and recommendation unthinkingly
Types of Authority
Formal vs Informal
- Formal authority enables and individual to exert influence as a result of either high, legally recognized office (legitimate authority) or high rank in a long-established but not legally codified hierarchy (traditional authority)
- Informal authority is based on the individual having either attributes that facilitate the achievement of a group’s goals (rational or expert authority) or an attractive and authoritative personality serving to enhance his or her credibility (charismatic authority)
Intuition
Relying upon anecdote, experience, or judgement to make sense of the world, without adopting a critical or questioning mindset
Experience
An event that is actually lived through that has resulted in learning
Common Sense
Beliefs or propositions that are generally agreed upon to reflect sound judgement and non esoteric reasoning
Common sense psychology: ideas about psychological issues derived from common experience and not necessarily from empirical laboratory or clinical studies
Logical Inference
A conclusion deduced from an earlier premise or premises according to values rules of inference, or the process of drawing such a conclusion
Empiricism
All knowledge of matters of fact either arises from experience or requires experience for its validation
The view that systematic experimentation is the foundation of scientific knowledge and the means by which individuals evaluate truth claims or the adequacy of theories and models
Where do research questions come from?
Questioning common assumptions, observation of the world around us, practical problems, and past research
Questioning common assumptions
Conducting research to test common assumptions forces us to go beyond a common-sense theory of behaviour and to examine more closely what actually occurs in the real world
Observation of the world around us
Making careful observations of what happens around us can lead to research questions
Practical problems
Real-world problems can serve as the impetus for a research question
Past research
Reviewing past research, and identifying inconsistencies and gaps in knowledge, can help generate novel research questions
Four Norms of Scientific Inquiry
- Universalism
- Communality
- Replication
- Disinterestedness
- Organized skepticism
- Peer review
Universalism
Scientific observations are systematic and structured, and evaluated objectively using the accepted methods of the discipline
Communality
Methods and results are to be shared openly
Replication
The repetition of an original experiment or research study to verify or bolster confidence in its results
- In exact replication, a researcher uses procedures that are identical to the original experiment or duplicated as closely as possible
- In modified replication, a researcher incorporates alternative procedures and additional conditions
- In conceptual replication, a researcher introduces different techniques and manipulations to gain theoretical information
Disinterestedness
Ideally, scientists should be making observations that will help them discover accurate things about the world
Scientists should be motivated by an honest and careful quest for truth, and ideally are not motivated by fame, ego, or personal gain
Organized Skepticism
All new evidence and theories should be evaluated based on scientific merit, even those that challenge one’s own work or prior beliefs
Peer Review
The evaluation of scientific or academic work, such as research or articles submitted to journals for publication, by other qualified professional practicing in the same field
Goals of Scientific Research
- Describe behaviour
- Predict behaviour
- Determine the causes of behaviour
- Explain behaviour
- Solve problems
Basic vs Applied Research
Basic research:
- Research conducted to obtain greater understanding of a phenomenon, explore a theory, or advance knowledge, with no consideration of any direct practical application.
- Goals: describe behaviour, predict behaviour, determine the causes of behaviour, explain behaviour
Applied research:
- studies conducted to solve real-world problems, as opposed to studies that are carried out to develop a theory or to extend basic knowledge.
- Goal: solve problems
